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HARPERCOLLINS, 1998
(available in paperback from HarperPerennial, 1999)
AT THE END of her first day in Kilanga, the Congolese village where her evangelist father has come to redeem the souls of the natives, Rachel Price weeps “for the sins of all who had brought my family to this dread, dark shore.” So begins the story of the Price family, told in turn by Rachel; her sisters, the twins Leah and Adah; five-year-old Ruth May; and their mother, Orleanna, in Barbara Kingsolver’s ambitious novel, The Poisonwood Bible. The story follows the Price family from 1959, when they arrive in the Congo, to 1998. As Orleanna and the girls age, their storytelling reflects their changing perspectives. The family’s complex saga is set against the backdrop of Congo’s fight for independence from Belgium and American intervention in the country’s fledgling government.
From the start, Congolese food troubles the Price girls. Goat stew, prepared by the villagers to welcome the newcomers, leaves Rachel miserable and disgusted. Orleanna wonders how she will feed her family from the scant resources, and Ruth May watches as tarantulas infest their bananas. As they settle into life in a foreign culture, the Price family’s relationship to food brings out the different anxieties and types of alienation that each member feels.
But the start of a new life also brings excitement and wonder. These emotions, too, are expressed through food. Leah marvels at the strange and wonderful names of the living things around her: “Nguba is peanut (close to what we called them at home, goober peas!); malala are the oranges with blood-red juice; mankondo are bananas. Nanasi is a pineapple, and nanasi mputo means ‘poor man’s pineapple’: a papaya. All these things grow wild! Our very own backyard resembles the Garden of Eden.”
Our Poisonwood Bible recipe harvests the bounty of fresh fruit that Leah celebrates. A traditional African fruit salad, saladi ya matunda can be made from a variety of tropical fruits. Feel free to experiment. Book club member Helena Puche of the South Florida Preschool PTA Book Club served a menu of Congolese food to her group, but called the saladi ya matunda “the magisterial dish” that book club members enjoyed most. “The two special touches, shredded unsweetened coconut and sweet water as dressing, gave us a combination of flavors that the members are not accustomed to tasting,” says Puche.
NOTE: Make this recipe a few hours ahead and refrigerate. It doesn’t keep for long.
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned, membranes removed 2 mangos, peeled, pitted, and diced 1 medium papaya, peeled, seeded, and diced ½ fresh pineapple, cored, rind removed, and diced ½ cantaloupe, seeded, rind removed, and diced |
4 bananas, peeled and sliced Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons) Simple Syrup (see p. 157) Grated coconut Roasted peanuts, chopped |
Cut the orange sections in two. In a large bowl, gently combine the oranges, mangos, papaya, pineapple, and cantaloupe. Fold in bananas. Stir in the lemon juice and add the Simple Syrup to bring the salad to desired sweetness. Cover the salad and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, stirring gently once or twice. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Serve in individual bowls and top with coconut and peanuts.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
The Boston Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers provides a support network for local Peace Corps volunteers going overseas and for those who have returned. The nonprofit group also works to fulfill the Peace Corps’ stated goal of “bringing the world back home to promote a better understanding of other people on the part of the American people.”
The Boston Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Book Group allows Peace Corps volunteers who have returned from overseas to connect with others on a monthly basis. “Coming home can be a culture shock, and it helps to spend time with those who have had similar experiences,” says Mary Knasas, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo.
The Poisonwood Bible resonated strongly for many of the Peace Corps returnees. “I could smell the earth. It was describing Africa as I lived it,” said Knasas. “The father was so rigid. He was going to do everything as he would have at home. As a Peace Corps volunteer, you learn you just don’t bring materials and ways of doing things from the United States to another continent without ever learning why they may be doing things differently, whether it’s planting crops or observing family traditions. For example, where are you going to get replacement parts for a highly mechanized tractor? Seeds from our soil do not take root and flourish on another continent,” says Knasas.
In Miami, Helena Puche hosted the South Florida Preschool PTA Book Club’s discussion of The Poisonwood Bible. She looked for simple but authentic Congolese foods to complement the discussion, especially foods that could be chopped and scooped up with the plantain and yucca chips or the cassava crackers she served. Her menu for the group of thirty included chicken in peanut and tomato sauce, grilled tilapia, red beans with shrimp (ukali), sweet potato salad with bacon and peanuts, and Saladi Ya Matunda (see recipe) with Belgian chocolates for dessert.
Marilyn Christensen and Sharon Murr of the Book Bags of New Prague, Minnesota, shopped at an African market in downtown Minneapolis to prepare for their discussion of The Poisonwood Bible. The shopkeeper, who greeted them in colorful Nigerian clothing, advised them on foods to serve to their group.
They hoped to serve fufu, a paste made of the ground-up powder of the manioc root and one of the staples of the Kilanga diet. Although in The Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna describes fufu as “a gluey paste” with “the nutritional value of a brown paper bag,” the Book Bags were undaunted. “The thud of fufu being processed, along with stirring to the limits of your endurance; these descriptions from the book were interesting to the group,” says member Ann Prchal. The storekeeper suggested quick-cooking yam powder, so no pounding or heavy stirring was needed.
The Book Bags’ Poisonwood Bible menu also included groundnut stew (hkatenkwan) and mango snow, a dessert of steamed mangos and sugar, and fried plantains and fresh-squeezed blood-orange juice.
Hostess Marilyn Christensen greeted guests in traditional African garb. Inside the house, she arranged tropical plants and African artifacts and played the taped sounds of tropical birds and animals to create a jungle atmosphere. The meal was served on a number of “thoroughly sterilized” hubcaps, a reference to the “metal bowls or hubcaps or whatnot” the villagers in The Poisonwood Bible held up to receive food at the feast.
